Ride Report: Spring gear shakeout to Dana Point, California

Southern California has emerged from the inhospitable wintry days of sub-60 degree temperatures and into Spring, where sunny and 72 climes prevail. In our household, that means it is time to dust off the camping gear and see what fits onto the bikes. I call it a shakeout ride, and this season, it was to Dana Point, California, for a night at Doheny State Beach.

Location: Venice, California to Doheny State Beach, Dana Point, California, and back

Miles: 150

Duration: Two days, one night

Accommodations: Camping

Dana Point, California, is 75 miles south of Venice, making it a good choice for a quick gear check trip, especially since this was also the first time I overnighted on my new-to-me motorcycle, a Ducati Monster 696.

The shakeout trip was born out of a five-minute conversation followed by a decision to pack up and go. That's the best way to stress test a system, to surprise it, right?  My hasty setup was a bungee cargo net and a backpack.

I will never do this again, for a couple of reasons. 

Love Letter To A Pepper Tree

Pepper Tree,
I was on my morning walk when I first saw you.  I had barely finished my morning coffee, so I didn't recognize you, already standing there in a moment of your history on the side of the road, your patient, relaxed limbs outstretched. The sun was starting to kiss your crown. Last night, the Santa Ana winds blew some of your berries onto the ground and me out of sleep and into your path. If any moment had been different, we may never have met. Perhaps this is how many encounters in Ojai's fields and orchards begin. I picked up one of your twigs, heavy with pink pearls, as though grabbing for a necklace someone dropped.

"Are these peppercorns"? I asked my friend.
"Yeah. They're everywhere. If you look higher in the tree, the berries are still green."

How To Blog About Anything

Ojai, California, offers fewer encumbrances than the working life in Los Angeles, so I've had a chance to get a tan, clear my head and dive in to my meta-mind, the one that writes about being a writer.  Great. Hey, at least I told you up front so you don't have to jump the break to keep reading.

I've had a few breakthroughs since I've been here. I put them into tidy compartments for later use.

Vice

If you have a rule that you don't drink while writing, which I do, an equal and opposite rule should be made that you should drink heavily if you're stuck, angry or blocked.  It might entice a drunken inspired moment that if you are still sober enough to write down, the next day you may have something to work with.  The kumquat post came out of not drinking, not drinking, then drinking. People seemed to like that post.